A Follow-Up on the Bible's Authors
With tongue firmly in cheek, the other day I suggested that the Hebrew Bible was written and edited by people who seem, to put it mildly, to have disliked the Israelites and their god; that is, by antisemites. My point is that the 24 books consist virtually of nonstop defamation of an entire population over millennia along with its tribal deity. (The children of Israel were polytheists most of the time.) Mass murder, slavery, collective punishment, and divine petulance and vindictiveness are to be found on nearly every page. How else to explain these illustrative passages? 2 Kings 21:10-14 The Lord said through his servants the prophets: “Manasseh king of Judah has committed these detestable sins. He has done more evil than the Amorites who preceded him and has led Judah into sin with his idols. Therefore this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I am going to bring such disaster on Jerusalem and Judah that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. I will stretch out o